I dunno.

Cupcake has had a hell of a rough week, and I’ve tried to stand by her as best I can. She lost her uncle on Monday, his wake was today, and his funeral is tomorrow, and it’s going to be rough. I know if I was in her shoes I would have broken down. But, she is so damn strong. So damn strong. I’m pretty sure one of my posts on here even goes to pointing out that she’s my hero, my favorite superhero, and the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me. So tonight, when she took a little longer than usual to answer my topic question, I asked if she wanted me to come up with one. She said yes. And, now, I have no idea what I’m going to talk about. Lol.

I could talk more about cupcake, but like I said, she’s the strong one in the relationship, and if I even tried to talk about the hurt she’s had to go through this week then I wouldn’t be able to type because of the tears. So, we’ll talk about something else.

A friend of mine, one of my Dungeon Crawlers, posted this chart on my facebook wall today. Now, I normally don’t pay attention to any of that. I might glance and see what it is, then forget it, but this one stuck out to me. Lol. I don’t know why. Anyway, my steampunk name turned out to be Lord Montague Septimus Wraithbottom, and looking at it now, I realized I did it wrong, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Lord Montague Septimus Wraithbottom, I love that name lol. I might take bottom out, but I’m definitely going to be using it somewhere. I’ve been looking for a name to attach to the lich I’ve got hanging around in Netheretia. I even got my Dungeon Crawlers to get their steampunk names (some of them have complied anyway, lol), and I plan on putting those to use as well. I’ll just have to see where things go, and what NPCs need names and how important they’re going to be when it comes to the story.

I dunno.

Another entertaining thing I thought about doing would be making Dungeons and Dragons version of Marvel and DC superheroes. The one that stands out the most for me right now, is Iron Man, probably because I see him as the easiest to translate. He would be the Iron Mage, a battle mage with levels in fighter, wizard, and technomancy wearing awesome ass full plate armor that might as well be a golem. I could take it even further though, and say he’s a clocknomancer. That’s not much different than a technomacer really, just my term for a tinker in my particular campaign setting. It’s a class that still needs to be built, but I believe it’s going to be a prestige class that would require the successful construction of a golem (an iron golem in particular) and the successful summoning of one of the Inevitables.

As you can see from the picture above, the Inevitables are a race of clockwork outsiders. So, to be a clocknomancer it would make sense for you to be study from the master craftsmanship of a race that is totally made up of what you want to construct. Or something like that.

I dunno.

I guess I’m just going to call it quits for the night. There’s going to be a lot to do tomorrow, and none of it’s going to be fun. So, keep me and cupcake in your thoughts and prayers. We really need some good juju sent our way.

Ryan

3-6-14

Stephen King

First off, if there is a god of literature somewhere out in the cosmos his name is Stephen King, if that’s any indication of what I think of the man. Lol.

Yes, Stephen King is one of my top three favorite writers, and without a doubt he is the best, stylistically speaking, of the three. The stories he weaves with his web of words are above and beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I can only hope to be nearly as good as he is.

And, now, to get my nose out of his crack, I should try and find something new to say about the man.

He’s one of the most prolific authors of our time, publishing at least one book a year every year since Carrie was published in 1974. 1974 was the same year Dungeons and Dragons was first introduced to the world, and both D&D and Carrie are now forty years old. Well… technically, Carrie won’t hit the big four-o until April 5^th. Exactly one month away from the time of this writing.

At one point I had hoped and prayed that my writing career would mirror Stephen King’s. I had hoped to be published the year I turned 24 (King’s age when Carrie sold), and I’ve hoped to be published every year since then. I’ve not really done a lot of work in that direction though. I mean, I’ve got six novels written (first draft at least), but I’ve only got one to the point where I considered it finished. And, I stopped trying to sell that one some time ago.

That’s really my problem too. The reason that I haven’t succeeded thus far is because I haven’t tried. (That’s usually a good reason for not succeeding.) But, in all seriousness I gave it a half hearted attempt what feels like ages ago, and I’ve talked a big game since then. How I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that, but I’ve put no effort behind it.

I think I’m scared.

I really do.

I think I’m afraid of putting myself out there and finding out that nobody likes it. And, worse, that people will say bad things about it.

I know that’s a damned stupid thing to be afraid of. Everybody has an opinion, and that opinion isn’t always going to agree with what I’m thinking. So, basically, being afraid of hearing other people’s opinions is kind of like not eating because you’re afraid of choking. I saw that on a meme somewhere. Jason David Frank’s facebook page I believe, but where I found it doesn’t matter. I should listen to it. I should stop being afraid of these things and move on with my life. At the rate I’m going I’ll never have the career I want.

So… yeah… That post didn’t go anywhere near where I thought it would go.

As for working Stephen King into my game I have a couple of options. I can use him as an NPC (lol). I could possibly work one of his monsters into an adventure maybe even having it be the primary antagonist (“We all float down here, Georgie. And, when you’re down here, you’ll float too!”). And, then there’s the simplest way to do it. I can use him as an inspiration to move both my life forward and take my Dungeons and Dragons game one or two steps down a much more terrifying flight of stairs.

Ryan

3-5-14

Tieflings

Tieflings is the topic my lovely and beautiful wife has given me today, and I find this kind of entertaining because a tiefling is the race she picked in my most recent game. Err… it’s the race she’s playing right now. And, she does very well, so far as I’m concerned, with how she goes about playing the character.

Tieflings are considered one of the planetouched races, this means that at some point in their ancestry there was a marriage of a mortal and an outsider (outsider being the type given to creatures and species that don’t originate on the material plane). Marriage simply meaning there was sex (or rape) that fostered the birth of a half child. By half child I mean either a half-celestial child, where an angel or there about is one of the parents, or it is a half-fiend, typically fathered by demons or devils of one sort or another. Tieflings are descended from the latter. They are the end result of centuries of half demons breeding with mortals, and it dips down to such a point as the Tiefling is the very last drop of fel-powered blood in the line of descent. So much so, that I believe (and I think there are rules for it, but I’m not sure) when Tieflings mate what race the offspring is turns into a craps shoot. Meaning, if two Tieflings were to have a child the result would be another Tiefling. If a male of XYZ race was to mate with a female Tiefling you would have a fifty percent chance of having a Tiefling or having a pure born member of XYZ race. If a male Tiefling were to mate with a female member of XYZ race things would be even more skewed. In that situation there would be a seventy-five percent chance of having a tiefling. And, the statistics could continue with generation X’s probability of producing a Tiefling just because they carry those genes. I guess it’s kind of like being a ginger.

To sum all that up in one easy sentence: It’s a lot like playing the lottery.

Now how we ran off on that completely random tangent is not something I’m entirely sure of. I guess something about… nope, not going that direction again. Basically, Tieflings are one of those races that is always different. There’s always something about them that just doesn’t sit right with you. Maybe their eyes are red, or maybe they have horns, or a tail, or the potential for a completely wild and fragmented personality with each shard showing more and more of that particular Tiefling’s ancestry. I would say it is something along those lines.

Anyway, how to incorporate Tieflings into my game is a really dumb question. Lol. Three of my PCs are tieflings, and each of them have wildly different takes on what it means to be a tiefling, and I like it like that.

And, I guess that’s it for me today. Lol.

Now, it’s time to write another blog post, since this one was so behind on getting finished. YAY!

Ryan

3-4-14/3-5-14